Table of Contentss

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Dinosaur

Wright Brothers

Gettysburg

Pertified Forest

Rocky Mountain

Cecil Doty

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix I

Appendix II

Appendix III

Appendix IV

Mission 66 Visitor Centers Introduction

A New Building Type

During the early 1950s, Park Service architects and planners began developing a centralized service facility to manage increased visitation. Small rustic museums, such as those designed by Herbert Maier in the 1920s and 1930s, could no longer meet the needs of tourists expecting trailer lots and modern campgrounds. The updated facility, equipped with basic services and educational exhibits, was known in its early stages as an "administrative-museum building," "public service building," or "public use building." As this range of labels suggests, the Park Service was struggling not only to combine museum services and administrative facilities but to develop a new building type that would supplement old-fashioned museum exhibits with modern methods of interpretation. In February 1956, Director Wirth issued a memorandum to help clarify the use of terminology applied to the new buildings, explaining that "there are differences in the descriptive title, although most of the buildings are similar in purpose, character and use." [38] From then on, Wirth expected park staff to use "visitor center" for every such facility, even "in place of Park Headquarters when it is a major point of visitor concentration." As late as 1958, however, the matter remained unclear to many park visitors. When the topic was raised at a design conference, it was noted that "the term 'Visitor Center' is sometimes confusing to the public as it is an unusual and specialized facility which may be associated with shopping centers with which the general public is familiar." [39] If still puzzling to some, the building's label emphasized the novelty of the visitor center and bolstered the Park Service's image with high-profile examples of Mission 66 progress.

The Custer Battlefield museum and administration building, designed by Daniel M. Robbins & Associates of Omaha, demonstrates the transition from early Park Service museum buildings to standard Mission 66 visitor centers. The building was constructed in 1950, the first year since World War II that congressional appropriations for the parks included museum funding. [40] A lobby space and offices were incorporated into the new museum, but orientation areas remained small; no audio-visual or auditorium space was included, and restrooms were relegated to the basement. Visitor circulation between the various areas does not appear to have been a major consideration. In 1964, the WODC made preliminary designs for an addition to the "visitor center," and construction drawings were drafted by Max R. Garcia, a contract architect based in San Francisco. The new wing added restrooms and offices to one end of the building. [41]

The Department of the Interior Annual Report for 1953 announced the commencement of "the first major public use development at Flamingo, on Florida Bay," which would consist of "a boat basin and other developments . . . camping and picnic facilities, dock and shelter building, roads, and water and sewer systems." At this time, "public use" was still a general term, applicable to a marina or an interpretive facility. The report also noted "administration and public-use buildings at Joshua Tree and Saguaro National Monuments, and utility buildings in Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., and at Death Valley National Monument." [42] Other early precedents for visitor centers included the public information centers at Yorktown and Jamestown.

The public use building planned for Carlsbad Caverns in July 1953 underwent the transition to visitor center during its design and construction. Preliminary drawings for the building were produced by the Office of Design and Construction in Washington, D.C., before the creation of the eastern and western design offices. Thomas C. Vint, chief of the Washington office, signed off on the proposal for a streamlined, two-story public use building with steel and glass facade. It featured a central lobby area and, on the left side, a coffee shop/fountain/dining room, curio store, and kitchen. The museum and auditorium were entered from the right side of the lobby, which included the women's restroom. Park Service offices were in the basement, along with the men's restroom, and on the second floor, where they overlooked the double-height lobby. [43] By December 1954, a more detailed preliminary design for the Carlsbad Caverns facility had been drafted in which the entrance lobby was attached to a lounge area on the right side surrounded by restrooms, an exhibit space, and a ticket booth. The concession area was further defined as a curio shop, coffee shop, nursery, playroom, kitchen, and offices. This design incorporated an existing elevator building constructed in 1932, and one wing of the new facility was built by the concessioner, the Cavern Supply Company, with guidance from the Mission 66 staff. [44] The 1955 Annual Report called it "a public use building and elevator lobby, museum and naturalists' offices." [45] By January 1956, "the Public Use Building was in the final stage of preparation," but when bids for construction were opened in March, the building was referred to as a visitor center. [46] In his dedication speech nearly three years later, Conrad Wirth praised the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center for its use of "modern design" and "modern high-speed passenger elevators." [47]

Figures 7 and 8. Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center. (Photos by Jack E. Boucher. Courtesy National Park Service Historic Photograph Collections, Harpers Ferry Center.)

Early proposals for the public use building at Grand Canyon suggest a similar struggle with programmatic aspects of the new facility. Preliminary drawings of the building were produced in 1954, with several proposals designed by Cecil Doty. One early scheme featured rooms organized around an open courtyard, a floor plan reminiscent of Doty's design for the Santa Fe Headquarters almost twenty years earlier. The visitor entered the lobby and faced an information desk. Restrooms were on the right, and a hall led to a wing of offices. Exhibit spaces began on the left side and wrapped around the interior courtyard. An auditorium was located behind the exhibit space. The expanded role research would play in the Mission 66 program was suggested by a series of three "study collection" rooms, an associated workshop, library, and storage for the reference print and slide files. Administrative offices were located in this area. The courtyard scheme allowed visitors to enter and exit rooms across the patio as they pleased.

Other designs for Grand Canyon's public use building centered around the lobby space and information counter. In one scheme, the museum wing was located on the left, with three square rooms en suite—exhibit room, study collection, and workshop. The restrooms were located immediately to the right of the entrance, and the library and offices behind the information counter. An alternative known as "Plan B" consisted of a similar arrangement of spaces, but omitted many of the interior partitions, foreseeing the "open plan" of the future. Despite variations in plan, the front facade of the various proposals remained remarkably similar. The entrance area was mostly glass framed in decorative brick. The exhibit wing to the left was cement stucco and the wing to the right either additional brick or stucco. The building was long and low, with little to attract attention except the flagpole and sign.

By 1955, the courtyard scheme had been chosen, perhaps because its plan allowed for more flexible circulation. Visitors entered a lobby and were confronted with an information desk on their right, directly in front of the rangers and superintendents' offices. The library and restrooms were straight ahead, and the exhibit space, lecture room, study collection/workshop, and offices arranged in clockwise procession around the courtyard. Other versions of this plan included an auditorium behind the exhibit room, but this facility was never built. The public use building was an immediate source of pride for the Park Service, which praised this "visitor center" as "a one-stop service unit" in 1956. An information desk complete with uniformed ranger, lobby exhibits, an illustrated talk, and a park museum "where a great variety of exhibits, arranged in orderly and effective fashion" were among the many conveniences for the visitor. The presence of the park superintendent and naturalist was also considered remarkable, as were the study collection, workshop, and library. According to the Park Service, the new building provided much-needed efficiency and economy. [48]

Figure 9. Grand Canyon Visitor Center, originally known as a public use building, in 1998. (Courtesy National Park Service.)

CONTINUED

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/allaback/vc0c.htm